


Tracking Santa

by MeredithBrody



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Christmas Story, F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-07
Updated: 2013-12-07
Packaged: 2018-01-03 21:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1073247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serena demands Jon help her track Santa after he is pulled away from her birthday party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tracking Santa

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to the Challenger to my Columbia LOL - She inspired this so...!

Some days Jonathan Archer really hated his position in Starfleet. As Chief of Staff he could be called at all hours to deal with an emergency, and emergencies didn’t take Christmas off. He thought that being called away on Christmas Eve was actually worse than on Christmas Day itself, because Christmas Eve had been a day for his little girl for the last 6 years. So being called from her party to deal with something that happened 30 light years away had not brightened his mood much.

But at least he’d made it home before it was time for the kids to be getting up in the morning, and he’d be able to lay the presents out with Erika, then curl up in bed for an hour or so before they’d wake up and demand to open them. He was even guaranteed that Erika would let him off for leaving the party, they both knew the sacrifices he needed to make for his job.

He didn’t expect the kids to still be up, so when he walked through the door he was surprised to see Serena sat on Erika’s computer, with no sign of his wife. He looked around again and shook his head, wondering if Erika had had to take Henry up to bed. He was just standing watching Serena when it seemed his little birthday girl realised he was there. “Dad!” She shouted, running to him and flinging herself into his arms.

“Hey, kiddo. What are you doing up so late, and why are you on mommy’s computer?” He asked, holding onto her tightly. Serena had a habit of fidgiting when someone was holding her. Sure enough she made it quite clear that she wanted to be put on the floor, at which point she pulled him to Erika's computer and looked very proud of herself.

“I’m tracking Santa daddy, look. I’m big now, anyway.” She added to the end, looking at him seriously. It didn't surprise him that all of a sudden Serena was being very particular about the fact she was now a big girl and needed to be treated like one.

He just slid onto the chair and pulled her onto her knee, watching as the site that Starfleet had set up so children could 'track' Father Christmas as he went about his journey across the world “I know you are.”

“I’m this many.” Serena shouted, holding her fingers up as she did. He couldn't help but laugh that she had still decided that was how she was going to show him her age, even though he knew she could count.

“How many is that many?” He asked, prompting her to start saying the numbers rather than just using her fingers.

“Six!” She squealed then went to focusing on her hunt for Santa. Something that had her full attention was welcome, but he still have one question that needed to be asked.

“Where is mommy?”

“She’s here watching this.” He heard from behind him and turned to smile at his wife. She didn't look like she was angry with him, which was a bit of a relief. He  run out of their daughter'ls birthday party only a few hours earlier. He wasn't sure he'd ever be as forgiving as Erika was.

“HC asleep?” He asked, just testing the waters to see if she was angry under the surface and just managing to hide it well, or whether she was actually angry with him. Right now it could go either way but he was leaning toward thinking he'd been forgiven.

Erika just smiled then stepped up behind him and ran her fingers through his hair. She never did that when she was angry with him, so he was fairly sure it was OK and he could relax a little. He took hold of one of her hands and kissed it. “He's been down for a couple of hours." From the look on her face he already knew there was something else, and he just stared at her until she caved, taking a few steps away before she spoke. "Your mom called.”

Jon put Serena on the seat on her own, letting her keep an eye on Santa as he made sure to keep his eyes on his wife. He loved his mother and he loved his wife. The two, however, did not love each other. He thought about calling his mom back, but considering the time and the fact it was Christmas eve, he'd call her in the morning.  She could watch the kids open their presents.“I’ll call her back tomorrow." He smiled slightly then put his hands on Erika's shoulders and put on his best begging face. "Sorry I got called away.” He mumbled, and all she did was smile and run a hand through his hair.

“It’s OK, Jon. She didn’t even notice.” Erika indicated the direction of the birthday girl, who was so engrossed in her Santa search that she wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to her parents on the other side of the room.

Or at least that's what they'd thought. “Mommy will I see Santa tonight?” Serena shouted over her shoulder, not even properly turning to face Erika, just assuming she'd answer. Erika did wrap her arms around him a little tighter before she looked back to the computer.

“No, you need to be asleep or he won’t stop here. Santa only brings presents to good children who sleep.” Erika had gotten the parental guilt thing down to a fine art, he had to admit. He was a little jealous at how easily that side of parenting had come to her, she kept telling him it was because she was mom, and mom was the hard one.

As if to prove his internal thought Serena turned straight to him and gave him her cutest look. “Daddy!” That one was the one that normally he couldn't say no to, but Erika's arms still around his waist reminded him that he didn't have a choice.

“Mommy’s right Bunny, you need to be asleep.” He smiled as best he could, knowing that he'd need to leave Erika in a moment and put their eldest to bed. He kissed Erika briefly as hard as he could before Serena came and tugged him away.

“Where’s Santa now?” Serena demanded, and he just pointed to the map and said the first country that came into his mind, not even looking to see where he actually was.

“He’s just going over England now, look.”

“He’ll be here soon?” She queried, and Jon just looked at her for a moment then nodded, it seemed an honest enough question, so why not tell her, she already knew she couldn't wake them up in the morning until Henry was awake. At least they had that this year.

“Yes. He will. Go get into bed Bunny. I’ll come check on you soon.” He watched as the six year old ran off, leaving him a few more minutes with his wife. “Did she enjoy the rest of the party?” He asked, wondering what had gone on after he left. At least he'd been there to see her open her presents.

“That wasn't England. Anyway. She had a ball, She almost killed little Charlie though." Erika smirked, but he couldn't hide his dour mood from her for long, he never had been able too. She put her hands on his shoulders and studied him seriously for the first time that night before asking he next question. "Everything alright?”

“Erika.” He sighed, not really wanting to talk about work, but it was quite obvious she wasn't going to accept his old excuses, none of which held up now, she had the same level of security clearance as he did, and even if she didn't, privilege laws would still apply.  

“I was called too Jon, they told me to expect a lot of contact from Captains over the next few days. I have a need to know what is going on, especially since I’ll be organising it from home.” Erika had a point. She was going to be involved in all of this too when the Captains started calling demanding more answers than she could give. She was uniquely suited to her job, and somehow managed to make it look easy, but she needed him to fill her in.

“There was a bombing on Tellar, but it’s just the early stages and there was a chance it was an industrial accident." He gave her everything they'd gathered by the time he had left. It would take several hours before any ships had gotten there to help the recovery and investigation. There was nothing either of them could do until then. "I don’t want to worry about all of this on Christmas. I’m going to go check on bunny.” He motioned to the stairs as he did. He really didn't want to have to worry about everything, not today. He was fed up with this duty today when it took him away from his daughter's birthday he knew he just needed to delegate for a few days.

“Don’t forget to check where Santa is now.” Erika advised, sitting in the chair in front of the computer that Serena had just vacated. He nodded, looking over her shoulder and kissing her cheek before pulling away.

“Belgium." He smiled, trying to keep that in his mind, not that it would really matter he would have been able to tell Serena almost anywhere, she was 6. As he was leaving he thought about how he hasn't actually thanked Erika recently for managing to put up with him for such a long time. He looked back and saw her hunched over the computer already, and thought now was as good a time as any. "Hey, Erika.”

“Yeah?” She asked, clearly looking to check her messages from work as he’d turned away. He couldn’t help but smile a little at the look of confusion on her face as she looked at him.

“I love you.” He grinned at her before ducking up the stairs to check on Serena. He looked in on Henry first, happy to see the baby sound asleep and clearly not about to wake up. He grabbed a book ready to read to his daughter, but the moment he pushed her door he realised she was sound asleep too, probably tired from her party. He just shut the door and managed to smile. At least he could go be Santa and get all the presents under the tree then bring in Christmas his favourite way, curled up in bed with his very own Mrs Claus.


End file.
